Editorial: Tuck away these farm pictures

Need evidence that the recent push to protect livestock operations from prying eyes is off base? Check out what was discovered in Madison County this week.

In Summitville, about an hour northeast of Indianapolis, officials found dozens of dead animals and others described as walking skeletons. "It looks like hell. I don't know how else to describe it," Maleah Stringer, director of the nonprofit Animal Protection League Inc., told The Indianapolis Star.

The owners? They claimed it was the price of doing business and that some of the animals had been dying since January.

But, if Senate Bill 373 - Indiana's so-called ag-gag bill - had survived as proposed, and you'd been a worker or a visitor on that property, took pictures of it and shared them as evidence of the abuse you'd witnessed, you would have been breaking the law.

This week, SB 373 was diluted in the Indiana House, so it doesn't include bans on photos and cameras. Now, people would be on the hook if they trespassed or made false claims to land a job at a livestock operation.

How making false claims or trespassing adds anything new to the Indiana Code is a bit of a mystery. But it was good that lawmakers backed away from the anti-watchdog aspects that would have helped conceal cases of abuse.

If the ag-gag bill resurfaces, just keep those photos from Madison County in mind.

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Editorial: Tuck away these farm pictures

Need evidence that the recent push to protect livestock operations from prying eyes is off base? Check out what was discovered in Madison County this week.